1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color printer and an exposure head therefor. More specifically, the present invention relates to an exposure head and a printer for obtaining color prints by exposing color photosensitive material to color light.
2. Description of the Related Art
Color printers for obtaining color prints by 2-dimensionally scanning color photosensitive material by laser beams of 3 colors namely R (Red), G (Green) and B (Blue) have been known.
This 2-dimensional scan by each of the RGB-color laser beams in such color printers is carried out by deflecting the laser beams with a photodeflector such as a rotational polygon mirror to cause the beams to scan the material in the main scan direction while moving the photosensitive material relative to the laser beams in the vertical scan direction approximately orthogonal to the main scan direction.
In the scanning method in such conventional color printers for obtaining color prints by the 2-dimensional scan with the 3-color laser beams deflected by the rotational polygon mirror or the like, a laser beam source for emitting the beams is necessary. Since the laser beam sources are expensive, color printers using them are also expensive. Furthermore, since the laser beam scanning optical systems are large, color printers using them are also large. Moreover, they have difficulty with respect to registration of the RGB-color laser beams on the photosensitive material.